*By Michael Teich*
For the right price, users can get a video shout-out from celebrities – actress Bella Thorne and NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Owens, to name a couple – through app Cameo.
"Selfies are the new autograph," Cameo's CEO, Steven Galanis, said Friday in an interview on Cheddar. "We thought the most personalized, authentic thing you can do with someone that's not there is getting them to say something to you."
Through the marketplace app, fans can request a message of their own devising that a celebrity can either consent or decline to read on camera.
The platform ー which launched in April ー has facilitated 52,000 videos and its talent count has grown to over 3,000, Galanis said. The most expensive shout-out on Cameo costs $1,000, but Galanis said the average video is $40.
Influencers are capitalizing on their popularity with ad dollars from brands eager to reach social media. Total ad spend on influencer marketing will jump from $5 billion this year to $10 billion in the next five years, [according to marketing firm Mediakix](http://mediakix.com/2018/03/influencer-marketing-industry-ad-spend-chart/).
But now, actors, athletes, musicians, and social media personalities can get paid directly from their fans. Galanis said his company takes a 25 percent cut, but the talent sets his or her own price.
"We always tell talent to optimize for amount of fans touched versus price," Galanis said.
For more on this story, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/cameos-personalized-shout-out).
Back in 1957, the late Queen Elizabeth II gifted a pair of swans to Lake Morton in Lakeland, Florida. Now there are around 50 swans from the original royal pair and each year they are rounded up and given an annual medical check-up to make sure they're all healthy.
Design and lifestyle company Apartment Therapy has brought back its annual Small/Cool NYC exhibit to showcase some of the biggest interior design trends. Maxwell Ryan, founder of Apartment Therapy, joined Cheddar News to show some of the designs the company has come up with as well as some unique choices for living spaces of any size.
It's the last day to vote for the annual CEW Beauty Awards. Ju Rhyu, co-founder and CEO of Hero Cosmetics, a finalist in the Launch of the Year category, joined Cheddar News to discuss the company's Mighty Surface Patch which has become a sensation.
California restaurants that offer boozy brunches have introduced an extra charge diners to indulge to the point of getting ill will be charged a $50 fee to cover the cleanup.
Jada Pinkett Smith and husband Will Smith have lived “completely separate lives” since 2016, she revealed in an interview with Hoda Kotb. The prominent Hollywood couple married in 1997 and have addressed separations and marital troubles, but never this specifically.
